Co-operative Group workers to descend on its AGM in Manchester in bid to save drivers from an outsourcing contract with French logistics firm

Co-operative Group workers will descend on its AGM in Manchester today in a bid to save their drivers from an outsourced French firm.

Unite members have called for the way the Co-op makes decisions to change after it made a deal to handle retail logistics to contractor Norbert Dentressangle.

Fifty-three of its drivers in south-west England stand to lose their jobs under the proposal but union organisers representing more than 1,200 other Co-operative Group drivers say they fear the deal could be just the beginning.

Unite national officer Adrian Jones said recent business decisions such as the Co-operative Bank’s flotation on the stock market had “caused irreparable damage, not only to the image of the Co-op, but to its very fabric.

“The decision to outsource drivers with no concrete business rationale is yet another example of poor decisions being taken and of an organisation that has lost its way.